The Beginning of Seska
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Inspired by "Worst Case Scenario". Spoilers for Prime Factors. What made Seska go from engineer to enemy? How did she find the program Insurrection Alpha? What happened to her relationships with Chakotay and B'Elanna? Read and find out.
1. Chapter 1

Paramount owns Star Trek. Not me.

Feedback - would be nice.

A/N - I was watching the episode "Worst Case Scenario, and I wondered what it was that made Seska decide to leave so I came up with this idea.

* * *

The Beginning of Seska.

Harshly combing her hair out of it's Starfleet regulation hairstyle, wincing in pain each time she tugged and pulled too hard for her liking, Seska glared furiously at her reflection hating the sight of the weak-foreheaded sight of her Bajoran disguise that had somehow managed to last this length of time, through all the skirmishes against her own people in the Badlands, up and down the DMZ and then later here, in the hell hole that was the Delta Quadrant!

Seska, like all Cardassians, was naturally xenophobic though deep down she didn't believe her people were the all-powerful gods those uptight fools in Central Command believed; if they were then the Federation would be nothing than a memory, the humans and all of the other races who believed in their precious "paradise" and their ridiculous ideas about freedom would be under the Cardassians the same way the Bajorans were. Empires like the Klingons and the Romulans would have been ground into dust, and she wouldn't be anywhere near here!

Seska groaned in frustration and stopped tugging on her hair, wincing a little in pain as she did. She was angry, yes, but that wasn't an excuse to rip her hair out but she still wanted to find something to vent her rage on after the day she'd just had. She had had enough of Janeway and her precious Starfleet and Federation rules, after all, what good had they done them out here?

Stranded in the middle of an unfriendly quadrant, surrounded by enemies on all sides, shunning their potential allies who just wanted a few pieces of technology, wandering around and studying every single weird thing they came across. Sure, Seska knew that back home on Cardassia the Central Command ordered ships to explore space, but Janeway should have put more priority on getting them home instead of blundering from one crisis to the next!

Who cared if races like the Kazon fought to the death for a single replicator? They were leaving and besides their lives were more important than the balance of power.

Worse, she was starting to see a change in some of her "fellow Maquis" crew. Seska had no real interest in her "friends." She didn't care about Chakotay, B'Elanna, Mike Jonas, Hogan, Lon Suder (oh, how much of a breath of fresh air that psychotic maniac was - unlike the rest of the Federation he didn't care about hiding who he was), Hogan. Ken Dalby was just an angry hothead, and the less said about the others the better, but she had never anticipated what being cooped up on Voyager, forced to obey Starfleet and the same Federation rules they had turned their backs on to fight against her people. It made her laugh, it really did. Like all Feds, when you got down to it, all of the Maquis would bow down to Federation dogma. The weakness sickened her. Sure, one or two of the Maquis crew from the Val Jean were finding it hard to adjust to life as Starfleet drones, but overall all of them were just buckling down and getting on with it.

But what surprised her the most was just how quickly Maquis like Torres and Chakotay had just settled into roles as senior officers. Chakotay, she could more or less understand, he was trying to keep all of them together while playing liaison with Janeway, but Seska saw him as nothing more than another Federation puppet. Okay, so he was trying to keep the peace on Voyager, and he had done a good job, but Seska had been on this damn ship long enough to see Chakotay was changing since he was made the first officer. That was nothing compared to B'Elanna.

Seska sighed as she rubbed her eyes tiredly. While she didn't really care if she lived or died, though if they were still in the Alpha Quadrant and she delivered Chakotay's cell to her people on a plate, B'Elanna Torres was someone Seska did have soft spot for. She wasn't sure what it was, the fact the pair of them had such fun together, or the fact B'Elanna was more of a realist to the universe than the rest of the crew. All that had changed now.

B'Elanna had hated the thought of being tied to Starfleet; her stories about her time at their vaunted Academy may have been dull especially since Seska hadn't been interested in Torres' sob story about how unfair life was to her because she was a half-Klingon, but Seska had always thought the other woman was a kindred spirit. The pair of them had absolutely hated the fact they were stranded in the Delta Quadrant thanks to Janeway's self-righteous stance to defend the Ocampans, and she had applauded Torres when she had punched Carey in the face. The bastard had it coming.

But there were differences between them. Whereas B'Elanna had made the effort when she had been made the chief engineer of Voyager to replace the previous guy to integrate with the crew, Seska had never been interested in making friends (that time where she had joked with Paris and Kim before they arrived at Sikaris didn't count - she was just enjoying a laugh).

Seska closed her eyes and let out an angry breath as she thought about Sikaris. She didn't feel sorry for manipulating Torres into pursuing the spatial trajector technology of the Sikarians which could have gotten them home by mentioning her fictitious brother after she had learnt Janeway, once more being the holier than thou Starfleet captain had decided once more to worship that stupid prime directive by refusing to find ways of acquiring the trajector so they could get home.

Seska didn't feel bad for manipulating B'Elanna. Far from it. She had done it because she had decided enough was enough. The longer they were stuck in the Delta Quadrant, they would probably get killed because of Janeway and her need to explore. She didn't regret the part she'd taken even if it had revealed they couldn't have used the Sikarians technology to get closer to the Alpha Quadrant because it was incompatible with Federation technology. It had nearly caused a warp core breach. B'Elanna had taken the fall for them along with Tuvok, probably the only decent thing the Vulcan had ever done for them, but Seska didn't care what Janeway did if she ever discovered who had worked with Tuvok and B'Elanna to steal technology behind her back.

Why should it matter if it got them home?

Seska sighed and let out an angry hiss. She was tired, but she was still too angry to really get to sleep even if she had to work in the morning. She looked around her darkened quarters trying to think of something meaningful to do with her time, but she couldn't find anything. She glanced at the door and cocked her head thoughtfully before she nodded. She would go to the holodeck, see if there was anything meaningful or inspirational for her to do with her time while she cooled off, and if any of the senior officers - including Chakotay or B'Elanna tried to stop her - then she wouldn't care one bit. If they didn't like her having time to herself, then that was just too bad. After getting out of her nightclothes and slipping into an outfit that was more comfortable, Seska left her quarters and headed for the nearest holodeck. When she arrived she just strolled through and checked the wall panel to see what was in the directory, mentally crossing each one in the catalogue. Why were Federation holodeck choices so boring? She wasn't interested in sporting or recreational programs now she was here, she wasn't interested in the historical programs, or the stupid holonovels written by non-Cardassian authors.

After five minutes of checking through the catalogue, Seska lost patience and decided to look into the private programs of the crew to see if they had anything interesting. Like all members of the Obsidian Order, Seska was very good at computer hacking. Federation computers were incredibly easy to break into when you got used to their layout. When she had boarded Voyager, which was thirty years or so more advanced than the lump of metal Chakotay had favoured, Seska had spent a good few weeks studying Voyager's computer. Her duties on the bridge and then later in the transporter room and in main engineering had given her all the access she had needed. The hard part was avoiding Tuvok's continuous checking of the computer network, but she had managed to route her hacking through half a dozen relay points in the network in order to avoid the Vulcan's notice. Once she had mapped out the network she had begun hacking her way into various crew members personal computers. It had taken Seska a few months but she had written quite a few backdoors into the computer in case the crew discovered the truth about who and what she really was. There was no doubt in her mind they would try to take her into custody; she was a Cardassian spy, and she was dangerous after all. There was also no doubt in her mind Chakotay would drop her in an instant if he ever found out who she was and that the thing they shared was a myth. She was only using him.

Seska was cut out of her thoughts after she had scrolled through the private directory that could only be accessed by the voice-prints of the crew when she had found something tucked away.

"What's this?" she whispered to herself as she studied the program. It looked like someone had tried to delete the program, but it had not worked. "Computer," she said aloud, "display program "Insurrection Alpha."

* * *

Seska was unimpressed when she ran the program, only to find herself in the decidedly unimpressive Voyager corridor. She sighed and walked down the corridor, her mind racing as she tried to make sense of the program and what it was. She was surprised when she heard the sound of footsteps, though she guessed she shouldn't have been since it would have made even less sense if the corridor was empty.

Looking down she noticed that her casual outfit was gone, replaced by the Starfleet uniform she usually wore.

She looked over her shoulder and was surprised to find Chakotay there. No, she reminded herself, this is a hologram.

"Where're you headed?" The Chakotay hologram asked.

Seska shrugged. "I don't know," she replied honestly, mentally cursing the writer of this program for being incredibly cryptic about what the program was meant. Even the title could have meant anything.

Fortunately, the hologram of Chakotay seemed to be adaptable. "Hey, I'm heading to the bridge. Why don't you tag along?"

"Okay," Seska agreed.

"So, how's it going?" The Chakotay hologram asked, and Seska had to suppress a snort; while she found the program so far trying, she had to applaud whoever had written the personality of Chakotay. The hologram was spot on with the personality of the man.

Seska shrugged, momentarily unsure of what she could say. "Fine, I guess," she replied.

"Tuvok still giving you a hard time?"

"A bit," she replied in a neutral manner.

"I don't know about you but when I think about sharing the ship with the same guy, it gives me a headache," the hologram said as they walked close to the turbolift. "Maquis and Starfleet."

Seska frowned as she noticed the emphasis on the Maquis part of that sentence, but the turbo lift doors opening stopped her from asking anything else and they both stepped inside. Seska barely noticed when the hologram of her sex toy told the lift where to take them as she tried to make sense of what this was. Whoever had written this program had done it very well, right down to how well the first officer's personality was portrayed, but she was still unsure of what was going on…

Who had written this program? The clue in the name "insurrection alpha" had something to do with Chakotay, but she wasn't sure just yet though she knew whoever had written this program had specifically written the way Chakotay approached her outside in the corridor, so she decided to wait and see how this part played out.

"So what do you think?" the Chakotay hologram asked her, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see the way he glanced at her without turning his head.

"About what?" Seska asked in a fake coy voice, hoping to dig for more information from this speck of light. _Patience_ , one of her old instructors had once lectured her, _was the key to gaining the best success on a mission._ It was something she'd expect to hear from a Ferengi and not a Cardassian, but she appreciated it.

The hologram even had Chakotay's patience. "About what I've been saying," it said, "about how a lot of the crew aren't too happy about our chief of security. For that matter, I doubt Captain Janeway is not winning any popularity contests either. Don't you agree?" the hologram asked and looked at her in a pointed manner that she had often seen on Chakotay's face and once more marvelled at how almost flawless this version of her toy boy was.

"You're testing me, right?" Seska pointed out herself, remembering all of her initial training when she had joined the Obsidian Order where all new agents inducted into the Cardassian secret police force had to undergo training in the basics of subterfuge before they moved onwards and gained further knowledge before going out to the holosuites and putting their training to work where they would practice for a short period and then develop them against normal people.

She had been in this turbo lift for a minute now, and this hologram, programmed or not, was as transparent as glass. Whoever had written this program had not really developed it at this point. She thought it was poor.

The holo-Chakotay didn't even miss a beat. "I'm interested in your opinion."

"Why?" she pressed as she gave in to the fool programmer's idea this was subtlety. Meanwhile, ideas about what this program was all about rushed through her mind as the holographic Chakotay went on.

"You're a good officer and I like you. I don't want to see you get hurt."

She had just about had enough of this now. She was done playing games, especially with holograms. It offended her to her being as a spy.

Besides, she was getting an idea of what this program was all about.

"Halt turbo lift," she snapped at the simulated computer as she stood in front of the unaffected hologram. "What's all this about?" she asked bluntly, entirely fed up with the riddles and really annoying innuendo.

The holo-Chakotay smiled softly. "There are going to be changes around here," it said. "All the Maquis are in line, and we've got 25 of the Starfleet people on our side."

"Mutiny?" Seska whispered in disbelief, though truthfully she wasn't that surprised since she had begun to guess what this program was about.

The clues were there! The title, the setting on Voyager, the way the holographic Chakotay seemed to be testing her, seeing what she was going to do. It all made sense, though she had no idea how the program would have played out if she had refused to take part in the mutiny.

"Yes. When the shooting starts, you're going to have to pick a side."

* * *

Seska re-entered her quarters and double-locked the doors - she had learned a long time ago to always watch her back, and like all good intelligence operatives she had learnt her lessons well, but unlike earlier when she had been so angry she had been barely able to think straight after that mess with Sikaris, this time she felt a bit more rested now she had discovered something worth her interest.

As she cleaned her teeth, Seska walked to her bed and climbed in before she turned off the lights. As she lay on her bed and checked the time, she was relieved she had only been gone for two hours. She would probably need some strong coffee in the morning but she felt the night had been worth it.

Seska lay on her back and looked up at the ceiling, thinking about the holoprogram she had spent the last two hours playing.

While she didn't know who had written it yet though she knew she would have more than enough time to discover who had done it at some point the next day, she had to admit that poor and unimaginative beginning aside, it was actually well written even if she found her holographic self a bit…flirtatious towards Chakotay.

Seska rarely flirted with Chakotay on Voyager, and when she did it was either private or along more subtle lines because she didn't want to be pulled up by one of Starfleet's insane regulations. It was a conscious choice on her part. Seska had taken advantage of many people during her career as an intelligence operative, and she had learnt the best way to do it was not to be too obvious, to always think through what she wanted, and then apply it gradually. It had worked a great deal over the years, and she saw no reason why it shouldn't work now.

But she didn't want to have problems on the more rigid Starfleet rules. In the Maquis, she had been slow and cautious in seducing Chakotay, but on this ship, she didn't want Tuvok lecturing her, but she also wanted to concentrate on other matters.

She had played the program three times with different combinations; it was irritating that the program began with Chakotay escorting her to the bridge, she had tried to say she was heading for a different location, but it hadn't worked and she knew that part of the program was written in with no way to change it.

Fortunately, she could play mutineer or loyalist when they got to the bridge. All she had needed to do was simply grab a phaser, shoot a few of the Starfleet crew (while she thought he was attractive certainly, she sometimes found Kim's never-ending preaching about how wonderful Earth was annoying, and his endless belief that the Federation was great was really trying on her temper), and she was fighting alongside Chakotay…. and herself and heading for the Mess Hall.

Seska shook her head at the clearly obvious low opinion the writer of the program had portrayed Neelix. While many of the crew liked the Talaxian (she did herself as long as he stayed clear of her and didn't make misassumptions of Bajoran culture), many found him annoying. (Again, she thought he was annoying, particularly with how little he was actually giving the crew like helping them avoid potential enemies).

It had been quite eerie walking through a corridor with a holographic representation of herself, rounding up the locked up crew members and taking them to a cargo bay where Chakotay made his speech, but she had to give credit to the person who'd written her character. It was scarily accurate in every way, such as her disdain towards Starfleet in general, and the way she viewed many of the crew, especially Kes.

But as she had walked with herself, helping the holographic her round everyone up, and mindful of the time, Seska had thought about who had written the program, but because she just didn't have the time to dig around in the computer to find out who had written the program. She had little doubt whoever had done it had covered up their tracks, but there were ways to seal files. It was just a question of knowing how to do it, but she was still not in the mood to hack Voyager's computer.

Anyway, she had decided to reset the program, and see what would have happened if she had decided not to become a mutineer. Needless to say, she had enjoyed it even less. Spending time in the brig with Kim and Tuvok, having to listen to that tedious lecture from the supercilious Vulcan was enough to try the nerves of anyone organic. Holographic, no.

Seska would have played the program out a bit more on both fronts, but it was too late, and she was tired. So she had closed the program down and placed it back in the same file it had been before - she doubted anyone would just find it again unless the writer returned, but that was doubtful since the program had not been touched in a while - and had headed back to her quarters so she could sleep and think things through.

As she started to drift off to sleep, Seska decided to just wait and see what had happened since she never made plans out unless she had everything she needed to make them work out.

* * *

Until the next time...


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer - I don't own Star Trek at all. If I did, well, lets just say that disgrace Star Trek Discovery would be extremely different.

Feedback would be nice.

* * *

The Beginning of Seska.

"Hello, Seska," Chakotay greeted her as he sat down at the table she was sharing with B'Elanna. "B'Elanna," he added when glanced over at the half Klingon engineer.

Both women were not surprised Chakotay was coming to speak to them, though they both knew it wouldn't be good. After Janeway, a personal meeting with Chakotay was inevitable. Both B'Elanna and Seska had been engineers on the old Maquis ship, so Chakotay was taking responsibility for what his crew had done. While Seska was a little bit curious behind Chakotay's reason for greeting her first instead of B'Elanna, she didn't let it worry her that much.

She no longer cared.

The undercover Cardassian agent didn't want to really spend time with her 'friend' but for appearance sake since the story of what had happened with the trajector had gotten out already thanks to the rumour mill - a warp core breach was not something the crew could just ignore - and sooner or later tongues would wag, Seska needed to still keep pretending to be B'Elanna's friend even if she felt nothing but contempt for the other woman who was only strong because she lashed out at the universe in general because of her boring childhood and the prejudices she'd received just because she had Klingon DNA mixed with her human DNA, something Seska had always found disgusting since it diluted the purity of a species, instead of just being strong because of her wits and capabilities.

Seska exchanged a look with B'Elanna. Both of them knew they weren't going to like this conversation. Chakotay may have been a mild-mannered man when he was calm, but when he was angry or annoyed or just disappointed, there were clear signs. Many of the Starfleet crew were still learning how to take their new first officer's moods, but Seska and B'Elanna, and the rest of the Maquis crew members were more than able to tell what Chakotay was thinking.

Chakotay was angry. They could both see it in his eyes. Out of the corner of her own eyes, Seska could see B'Elanna instantly react. Instead of gearing herself ready to lash out like she would have done in the past, matching Chakotay word for word in anger while she made excuses to explain her actions, she did the opposite. B'Elanna's back stiffened and she tensed, but beyond that, there was no expression in her face except for guilt and disappointment Seska could see radiating from her expression in waves that things had spiralled out of control.

As an operative in the Obsidian Order, it had taken Seska a long time to learn the intricacies in body-language and expression. It was a requirement for all operatives to learn so then they could be trained to see if someone was telling the truth, or hiding something that an interrogator could latch onto. When he had reigned supreme as the longest-serving head of the Order, Enabrain Tain had pushed the boundaries of the requirements to ensure the agency had the best operatives who were capable of not only capable of hiding the truth and the story from their faces, but being able to actually read the story from those who they were ordered to spy on.

Seska had learnt a long time ago how to school her expressions. It had helped her break into places during her early years as an operative working in the field, to an assassin who used her skills to get in and out while merging with the crowd, and it had helped her easily with integrating with the Maquis and the crew of Voyager.

Usually, Seska masked her features behind a carefree, happy mask, but not today. No, today she was going to show Chakotay she felt no regrets. She no longer cared.

"Commander," B'Elanna greeted quietly, making Seska sneer mentally. She even sounded like a Starfleet officer. So much for being a Maquis, though she sneered at that as well. She wanted to yell at the universe in general for her people to acquire technology to match the Federation fleets and take in the DMZ, and a little bit beyond. The Federation believed everything was solvable with a treaty, but they were weak.

The Maquis were just as weak.

Seska had no doubt in her mind the Maquis would be wiped out sooner or later. But at this rate, she doubted she'd see it. It would be great to dance on their graves.

But while Seska hated the Maquis, she hated just how insidious the Federation was. Not only had their values re-penetrated the minds of the Maquis crew on Voyager, but it had turned Chakotay and B'Elanna into nothing more than Borg Drones. They just did their jobs like good puppets.

Chakotay ignored the greeting. Seska didn't even flinch, she had known the moment the human sat down this was not going to be good. The Cardassian spy kept silent, waiting for an opportunity.

"I heard a very disturbing story last night, from the Captain," Chakotay said quietly, not wanting the others in the mess hall to hear what he was about to say, though Seska knew it could very easily deteriorate into shouting. At the mention of the Captain, B'Elanna flinched openly, making Seska sneer even more. For someone who had professed to loathe Starfleet, B'Elanna was doing a good job of proving what a hypocrite she was.

"Do you want to hear what I heard?" Chakotay asked pleasantly, though his eyes were like disruptors as they blasted his anger right at them. Both Seska and B'Elanna and the other Maquis were more than familiar with Chakotay's tendencies to know he would be rhetorical at first and then he would lash out. Neither woman spoke. They just wanted this over and done with, though for different reasons.

"I heard that you two, and Tuvok surprisingly enough, decided to go behind our backs to steal Sikarian spatial folding technology to shorten our trip home," Chakotay went on, his eyes increasing their intensity as he ground his teeth together furiously but Seska had been around Chakotay long enough to know he was embarrassed and disappointed by what they had done.

B'Elanna nodded. "We know," she said lamely. "It was stupid-," she began but he interrupted her swiftly with a speed of a Kohn-Ma assassin.

"No, it wasn't just stupid, B'Elanna. I have enough problems as it is trying to maintain the peace on this ship between the two crews as it is. I didn't need to hear this on top of everything else," Chakotay snapped, but he was somehow able to keep his cool. Seska honestly had no idea how he managed it, she really didn't. When she lost her own temper, she would lash out. So did the other two people at the table, though B'Elanna was more volatile than she was. While Chakotay could fly into rages, he usually controlled his temper. Even now he was doing it.

Chakotay looked down as he clearly struggled with the effort to not lash out at the two women sitting opposite him - Seska wished he would just let go, just get it over with, but he was now as bound as the others with those foolish Starfleet rules of conduct to actually do it.

"I can understand you two," he said, "I really can. While I don't understand Tuvok's motives and I don't really want to, I understand why you did it. I just wish you hadn't-…"

Inwardly angry that the arrogant Vulcan had been dragged into this, Seska was tempted to interrupt at that point. She already had a biting reply in mind, it would have gone something like "Hadn't what, Chakotay? Tried to get us home? Isn't that what we're striving to do, instead we're locked down by Starfleet procedures and Starfleet rules, and Starfleet's precious Prime Directive! Big deal. Who cares? So we stole technology, so what? We took a gamble, and it didn't work."

Meanwhile, Chakotay was hating this whole mess. If he was honest with himself, he wasn't one hundred per cent surprised by what had happened with this little cabal. The idea of folding-space in on itself to cross vast distances was compelling enough in the Alpha Quadrant since it could mean they could cross distances similar to the legendary Iconians, but out here their situation was radically different.

Such a technology with the promise to shorten their trip home by thousands of light-years would be a godsend to them all. 40,000 light years closer to home, 30,000 slashed off of the 70,000 would be a boon to them all. But it hadn't worked. The warp core had nearly collapsed on them, and the black market deal had been revealed.

Chakotay had already had a gut full of this thanks to Janeway which was bad enough, but truthfully he couldn't let this go. He just wanted to remind his two friends, one of whom who happened to be his girlfriend and occasional lover though they hadn't really indulged since he didn't want the crew to talk. It was bad enough Tuvok was occasionally telling him as the first officer he had to present an example to the rest of the crew, blissfully forgetting relationships flourished on a starship. Just because the Vulcan was happily married didn't mean the rest of the crew had to be reduced to the level of a eunuch.

Frustrated, Chakotay ground out, "Don't ever do this again behind my back."

Personally, and he wasn't going to admit it, not even to any of his old friends in the Maquis, he was actually proud they had taken the initiative to try to either shorten their long journey home while Janeway was content with playing the holier than thou Starfleet officer. Chakotay resented being her token Maquis officer, resented how he had to play the game but he knew organising a mutiny would not work. For one Tuvok and Janeway did not live in a bubble, much, even though the pair of them wanted to shove Starfleet rules and regulations down his throat after they had gladly handed over their own colonies over to the Cardies, and didn't lift a finger when hundreds of people were slaughtered or raped by the Cardassians simply because they could.

With that, he stood up and left. Seska seethed with anger as he walked away, positive that he was only lashing out because of Janeway. No matter, she thought to herself.

Shortly after Chakotay had left, they were swiftly joined by Paris and Kim. The sight of them together mentally exhausted Seska, who was already drinking twice as much coffee since she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. She mentally prayed for silence from the pair of them. She wasn't in the mood for them today, but she knew better than do anything stupid which might cause her problems in the long run.

But if she heard one more sob story about missing Earth….

Paris settled his tray on the table and Kim followed suit, both of them grim-faced. "We heard what happened," Paris whispered.

"Yeah, we were so close as well," Kim muttered, looking depressed that this once opportunity that could have shortened their journey could have worked if certain facts had come out.

B'Elanna sighed. "I know, but we couldn't have anticipated those anti-neutrinos…"

"You should have done!" Kim snapped, his already narrow almond shaped eyes slit-like with fury.

"Harry!" Paris immediately chided his friend, but Kim was on a roll.

"No, Tom," Kim snapped, "you should have done your research. Instead of going through proper channels-,"

"Oh please," Seska sneered, unable to let that go, annoyed with the arrogance. "Like that would have worked. We were approached by a black market dealer willing to work with us for his own prestige. Between an official leader who genuinely didn't care whether we were forty-thousand light years closer to home, and played with us and dangled the chance on a hook, and someone willing to break those laws and give us the technology, we should have gone through the one willing to break the rules. History is full of people who've broken the rules. What does it matter?"

"It matters," Kim snapped.

"Why?" Seska challenged, her eyes spitting fire. She had the suspicion Kim was only angry because it didn't work. "Besides, Tuvok was the one to get the technology in the first place. Or are you just annoyed we went behind the Captains' back?"

With each word, Kim recoiled but Seska did not raise her voice, not once. She was not only too tired to truly lash out like she was prone to do on many occasions. "We could have been home if we had gotten more information about the space-folding process instead of just a piece of technology, but instead of going behind the magistrate's back, Janeway was more interested in her libido!"

Silence reigned supreme at the table. No-one dared to breathe. Seska could see the astonishment on Kim and Paris' faces, while out of the corner of her eye she could see B'Elanna's own surprise and worry. That made her angry, she didn't want anyone to be worried about her.

Seska realised she was going too far. In order to cover her tracks, she lowered her voice and schooled her features to appear calmer, and more forgiving even though she felt physically unwell about doing that. "I'm sorry, Harry," she said, "but we had to get hold of the space-folding matrix by any means necessary, and if we had to play hard and dirty to get it, so what?"

She had to get out of here. She not only had a long hard day's slog down in the engine room, but she also needed to mentally prepare herself for the onslaught she could tell was coming from B'Elanna. She could see the half Klingon engineer's expression and knew she would need to prepare for it.

She took another, long gulp of her coffee, already feeling the caffeine do its work, and she stood up but Tom Paris stopped her. "For what it's worth," he said quietly, "I think you did the right thing, getting that spatial matrix. I learned a long time ago rules are suggestions."

Seska studied him closely. She had never really liked Tom Paris in all the time she'd known him. Chakotay had joined the Maquis and rose to become one of the more important leaders which made it logical for the Obsidian Order to send her out to spy on him and then lead him into a trap so then they would be able to base many of their strategies for the final destruction of the terrorist organisation easier, but Chakotay's reasons were honest. Paris was someone who'd been thrown out of Starfleet and had nowhere else to go, and yet she knew he was telling the truth.

Not trusting herself, she nodded and left the mess hall.

* * *

B'Elanna's onslaught began when the chief engineer told her she needed help with work in the Jeffries tube. Seska followed her, just wanting the whole mess to end so she could get some work done. Seska followed her 'friend' though in the next few minutes she might need to reassess her friendships on this ship, her eyes seeing how clearly angry the other woman was.

When they reached a junction, B'Elanna turned around and glared at Seska freely now the pair of them were on their own. "What the hell were you thinking, arguing with Harry in the mess hall?" she demanded.

Seska raised an eyebrow, deciding to let B'Elanna rant at her for a moment while she formulated her reply.

Visibly annoyed she wasn't getting a response, B'Elanna went on. "Look, I know you wanted to get back to your brother, Seska, but-," she snapped, but Seska decided to shut her up there and then.

"Ah, yes, my brother," she sneered, "I'll never see him now, will I?"

"And I'm sorry, but it wasn't my fault!"

"I know it wasn't, my problem is with Janeway and her principles!" Seska snapped, losing some of her composure whilst she tried to regain some measure of her control but after the night she'd had after discovering that program on the holodeck, she was too irritable to care but she still needed to keep her cool. She was too well trained to completely give the game away. "We're in the Delta Quadrant, nowhere near Starfleet Headquarters. There aren't any admirals puffed up with self-importance looking over her shoulder. She could have kept Gathtalking while we either studied the trajector matrix or sought out more aid to find out how it worked if she had taken those steps then perhaps we wouldn't have had a near core breach!"

B'Elanna was taken by surprise by Seska'a own onslaught, but the Cardassian could see clearly the other woman could tell she had a point.

"You're right, Seska. Captain Janeway had the chance to look beyond Starfleet principles, but you forget," B'Elanna stressed at that point and Seska knew she was not going to like what she was about to hear, not one little bit, "I'm the chief engineer now, a senior officer. I have to work with her now. I can't just ignore it."

"I know," Seska replied, hating herself for the need to be understanding. She did understand since her family had a long tradition in the Cardassian fleet though she didn't have the patience for complying with rules when there were dirtier ways of getting the job done. "But I am tired of playing by her rules-!"

"We will get home-,"

"When?" Seska countered angrily.

"We will," B'Elanna snapped, angry that she herself did not know the answer to Seska's counter question. But then again nobody onboard the ship could really answer it either.

"Okay," Seska decided to change her track though she remained fixed on the topic. "So if we come across a different type of faster than light propulsion, one that can slice our trip in half, and we are refused access to it, what then? Will we just shrug our shoulders and carry on with our trip the slow way when she could have either negotiated for it or stolen it?"

B'Elanna wasn't surprised by her last question. She knew Seska didn't particularly care about the boundaries. Theft of something she wanted was her style. "She won't do that."

"I know that," Seska replied.

She could see it on her 'friends' face clearly that the other woman had definitely changed because in the past, B'Elanna, and Chakotay for that matter, would not have cared much about the rules to get what they might need. Seska could see B'Elanna was now a brainwashed little puppet, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Can we just forget this?" Seska pretended to plead, though truthfully she had no intention of forgetting this.

Fortunately for her, B'Elanna was okay with that. But as they left the Jeffries tubes, Seska was trying to figure out what she was going to do next. She decided that the best thing to do was to fall back on to the part of her Obsidian Order training where she would be expected to stay in the background and just observe the crew. It was the only sane thing she could do, and come up with a plan that could be beneficial in the future.

It wasn't as if she didn't have anything really pressing on her mind.

* * *

Everyone who worked in main engineering was always thankful when their shifts were over, so Seska didn't really need to hide her delight when she got off her shift and after a quick meal in the mess hall (once more being forced into eating another one of Neelix's over-spiced dishes which involved drinking copious amounts of water just to make it more palatable), Seska headed once more for the holodeck while clutching a padd in her hand.

As she approached the holodeck, Seska saw to her frustration someone was already inside. Biting down on her tongue to stop her temper from erupting, she checked the wall panel to see who was inside. It was the Delaney sisters, running one of their favourite programs.

Seska growled and walked off until she was in a side corridor, and headed away for another holodeck. The holodeck computers were all connected, so while it would have been a good idea to play the program she'd found last night in the same holodeck she'd found it in, she could access it anywhere in other holodecks.

After another trip in a turbo lift to a different deck, she approached the nearest holodeck. As she rounded the corridors, she tapped her comm badge (she hated the thing since it was the symbol of one of Cardassia's greatest enemies, treaty or not, but it was more versatile than the bracelets her fellow Cardassians wore in the military orders), "Computer, is anyone in this holodeck?"

"Negative."

Seska sighed with relief and she walked to the wall panel and after a few minutes of work she accessed the program, so when she walked through the door the program was already running. Although she wanted to find out who had written this program, Seska needed excitement, especially after those confrontations with Kim and B'Elanna. She understood their reasons for the arguments. Kim was lashing out because he was disappointed their attempt had not worked, but it warred with his precious Starfleet principles, and B'Elanna because she didn't want any more fights.

Seska could not believe it. After running the simulation a couple of times, enjoying every moment of having some real action though it was simulated and wasn't real, she had set the holodeck into a loop where the mutiny took place in the later stages so then the rather boring beginning did not occur. She used that period while the program was playing, showing different scenes of the holographic mutiny, particularly the parts she really enjoyed to get into the computer to find out who had written the program.

Seska was a skilful engineer and computer programmer, her skills honed by her years of experience in the Obsidian Order, where she had learnt a few tricks, especially when it came to holographic technology. She knew if she had tried to find out who had written the program when it was switched off the computer would make it harder for her to access, but with the computer running the simulation in a loop its processing power was concentrating on maintaining the scenario while it played out according to its programming.

At first, she didn't have much luck since the encryption was quite strong, which showed something about who'd written it in the first place, and she couldn't help but run down a potential list of suspects before she found out who it was and along the way she struck off the names.

It wasn't Janeway; she didn't have the guts to write something like this since she was so naive and foolish, believing in those stupid and wasteful Federation principles of hers.

Oh, Seska had no doubts the stupid bitch had plans in mind to stop her ship being taken by the Maquis. The only problem was Seska didn't know what those plans were.

It wasn't Chakotay either. For a man who was cunning and brilliant in certain fields, computer science was not one of them. He was a novice at this type of thing, and besides, if he was planning a mutiny against Janeway, he would have written something a bit more…versatile than what she had seen so far. Granted, at first, she had imagined that Chakotay had plans to write a holographic rehearsal of a real mutiny, which he'd planned to share with every member of the Maquis and any Starfleet officer who wanted to get home faster than they would with Janeway, since he would want it to go according to plan. But she quickly decided it wasn't him.

Chakotay would have written different variants of the program so the mutiny would have begun in any number of ways since his time in the Maquis would have taught him to come up with contingency plans since the terrorists had to rely on second-hand technology and needed to work with ships that were too small and not very powerful so they would need to play dirty. That kind of mindset was hard to get rid of. If Chakotay had written Insurrection Alpha then he wouldn't have relied on a starter being Janeway and Paris leaving on a first contact mission. No way. He would have come up with numerous starters, and besides, why would he not have carried on writing it? The title of the program was also a problem since he wouldn't have made it obvious.

It wasn't B'Elanna, Paris, or Kim. Oh, they could have written it, especially Kim and B'Elanna, though Tom Paris… it wasn't really his style, and besides, why would he write it in the first place?

But it wasn't until she recognised the security code that was embedded in the file it all fell into place.

Tuvok.

Now it made sense. As the chief of security, Tuvok must have worked out that the Maquis crew members invited by Janeway to board the ship and become part of the crew to increase their chances of getting home was dangerous, but his experience with the Maquis during his undercover mission which was radically similar and yet oh so different from her own since the Obsidian Order planned to torture the Maquis cell under Chakotay's command where the possibilities were virtually endless while the Federation would just lock them away as they'd done to Paris.

Insurrection Alpha…the clear disdain for Neelix, the awful way the beginning was written….. Now she knew who'd written the program and locked it away, Seska could now deduce what the program was. It was a training program for Tuvok's Starfleet security team since the Maquis members would tell Chakotay what Tuvok was doing, and cause problems for the Vulcan down the line. As an idea, she could see it working. The training program would make every member of Tuvok's security detail vigilant and alert, and train them for the possibility of a Maquis mutiny.

From a Vulcan point of view, it was logical to imagine a mutiny taking place, even she could appreciate the common sense. She never thought Tuvok would have it in him, and yet he was the same man who had gone behind Janeway's back and acquired a spatial matrix to get them 40,000 light years closer to home, and he was the same man who had lied to Chakotay's face. Anyone who was able to do that was worthy of some respect.

But why had he stopped writing it, and filed it away?

After a few minutes, Seska simply decided it made no difference, and she continued to study the program, using Tuvok's security code to cover her tracks though she doubted the Vulcan would really think anything was wrong if he ever decided to look for the program since he felt he'd deleted it.

Still, an evil idea came into her mind. Tuvok doesn't know I know about this, she thought to herself. That means I have plenty of time to work out what to do about this.

Grinning evilly as she pictured the possibilities of what this program and the information she'd just gleaned from it could do, Seska spent the next ten minutes painstakingly copying and pasting the coding network into the padd. She would study it later and take it from there.

Once she was finished, she filed the program away, knowing if Tuvok came back to it he wouldn't find any traces but she quickly checked the computer to make sure Tuvok hadn't left any traps like he had done with Sikaris when he had locked the transporters out. While she was surprised the Vulcan had it in him to be that cunning, she had to remind herself that no-one should be underestimated. One of the first rules Enabrain Tain had beaten into the minds of his operatives.

* * *

As she worked in main engineering a few days later following an extremely brutal Kazon attack on the ship. The Kazon had apparently been loitering outside Sikarian space, waiting for them to come out so they could attack. Seska ground her teeth together in anger, furious that once again Janeway was not bothering to get information from that useless Talaxian about the Kazon so this kind of thing wouldn't happen. Seska knew she was being harsh, but standing in main engineering while cleaning up the damage, her sleeves rolled up and revealing the white, pinkish skin underneath, Seska had to stop herself from losing it as Janeway made an announcement. She was not in the mood to listen to the fool, not today.

 _"Voyager is in bad shape. I know that, and you know that. But the main thing is we are still alive,"_ Janeway was saying over the comm line while the repairs were taking place. Seska didn't see the point behind this little pep talk, in her mind it was completely unnecessary and useless. But she supposed Janeway felt the need to say all that, just to bring up the morale of the crew. _"The Kazon came dangerously close to battering down our defences, and getting hold of our technology-,"_

Seska ground her teeth even more as she stalked towards one of the workstations so then no-one would see her anger. Everybody on the ship knew the Kazon sects fought each other to the death, had little wars with one another when they sensed one of their rivals having different technology. She just wished Janeway didn't state the obvious every time.

" _We will get home. We will not give anyone our technology, just to get ourselves back home. When we set this course back home, I made it clear this ship is a Starfleet ship with a Starfleet crew. We will not deal with the Kazon, who are a bunch of outlaws. We will get out of here alive. We are leaving the Kazon behind with every twelve light years we pass. We will reach Federation space…"_

Seska tuned her out then. She was tired of Janeway constantly lecturing them about the Federation all the time, and how they would get back without having to do anything dirty. Why of all the Starfleet captains sent out to retrieve Tuvok, did it have to be this one? Seska was just tired and fed up with Janeway's almost religious view of the Federation's Prime Directive. Letting out a sigh, Seska got back to work around engineering, contemplating this problem.

In her view the Voyager crew would be lucky enough to even reach the Federation with the ships' hull intact, never mind all of them alive. Why was it difficult for Janeway and the others to see it made no difference if they followed the almighty Prime Directive or not? They were leaving this part of space, so why not ensure their own safety by giving the Kazon technology that would make them amicable instead of hostile? Couldn't Janeway see if she gave them replicators or transporter technology to a sect, they would gain more intelligence into Kazon politics than the secondhand nonsense Neelix provided, not to mention invaluable access to raw materials and protection?

And if the sects tore themselves apart after they were gone, what of it? It would take decades, if not centuries for Starfleet or one of the Alpha Quadrant powers to come out this far into the galaxy, and if they had to deal with the consequences, so what? Knowing Janeway, she would have everything she could have done logged away in Voyager's computer. Starfleet would probably punish her, or they would just accept what she had done simply because she had no choice, either way, it wasn't Seska's problem.

Thinking that…. Seska wondered as she worked if that was the reason why Janeway was determined not to play with the Prime Directive while they were out here, was she afraid of how people would see her?

Seska shrugged mentally, deciding it made no difference. But as she took a look around the engine room she groaned when she saw the state of it. Engineering always took a battering during a battle, but even she wondered how long it would be before B'Elanna could not do anything around here anymore.

And then, Seska's opportunistic found the answer.

If Janeway refused to do what was needed, she would.

She would give one of the Kazon sects technology.

Seska didn't doubt for a moment they would accept any deal, official or unofficial. They were hungry for power. They would accept anything from her and wouldn't really care about her motives. Just like she would not care at all about what the crew did if they found out what she was doing, and would definitely not care or give a thought about what the consequences could be.

Seska smiled. It felt as though her brain had been lit up and a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, even if she didn't have anything to do with the day to day running of Voyager. Still, she didn't care.

But then her euphoria wore off as she began thinking through her plan through the initial stages to the later ones. It would be easy in itself to transmit information to the Kazon tentatively, and when things between her and them were solidified by her giving them basic information to enhance their own technology, and when she heard the Kazon were pleased with what she'd done, she would suggest a face to face meeting with them in real life on a planet, and she would ensure a piece of Federation technology was given to them.

There was a downside to her plan. Someone discovering her actions or the Kazon doing something incredibly stupid that would make her discovery a likely possibility. Well, that wouldn't be a problem. She had programmed into the computer a number of shortcuts and backdoors, so if the crew discovered what she had done by allying herself with the Kazon, she would find it easy to get out and they wouldn't know about it until it was too late and she had programmed a number of blocks into the system to prevent her commands being overridden. And if the crew discovered her Cardassian nature, well again it wouldn't be a problem since she had never gone anywhere near sickbay where the Doctor could examine her long enough to tell her genetic structure was different from a Bajoran's own structure.

No matter what happened, Seska thought to herself, she would help the Kazon. She would ally herself to them, speaking for the Voyager crew, in order to find a practical ally, not a Talaxian idiot and a soft Ocampan girl who knew nothing about the reality of the universe - that the strong survived above all else - and they would protect the ship from the worst of what was out there, preferably without the knowledge of the crew.

It took a while for Seska to remember the program she'd found on the holodeck, the one Tuvok had written about a Maquis mutiny. Could she somehow integrate that program into her plans, or should she hack into it and leave it as an unpleasant surprise for a later time? She couldn't see a program like that factoring into a black ops deal between herself and the Kazon and one of the sects, but she could see the program being used for something further down the line if something happened to her.

It would be a nice little present for one of the crew if she did leave them if they discovered the truth about her.

* * *

Until the next time...


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer - I don't own Star Trek Voyager. Unfortunately. If I did, that abomination called Star Trek Discovery would never have come about. If I were in charge, there will be something different.

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* * *

The Beginning of Seska.

Seska left the holodeck with a smile on her face, though with her features it looked more like a smug, self-satisfied smirk as she headed back to her quarters. It had taken the Obsidian Order spy a while, but she had managed to hack into Tuvok's precious security training program while she used Tuvok's voice print to make it easier and simpler for her to get in and make the changes she wanted to add while making sure she didn't leave that many traces.

It had taken her some time because she had been trying to learn more about the program. Tuvok may not have been a master of computer programming the way she and B'Elanna were, but he was good at both covering his tracks and making it virtually impossible for anyone other than himself to make any kind of real change to the program.

That wasn't a problem; she wasn't planning on rewriting the entire program from top to bottom, making it completely different from Tuvok's vision of a simulated Maquis mutiny.

But the narrative parameters file was open to her. The file was just one of many stored along with the main program, and even if someone else found Tuvok's program and played it, they wouldn't see the point in opening the file, but if they did then they would end up in a lot of trouble because she had reprogrammed it. That was why it had taken her such a long time to hack into because she had been trying to understand the intricacies behind the program so she could make the changes she had needed to without setting anything off in the process.

The rest of the program was clear and not dangerous - the program would play out the way it was designed to depending on whether or not the officer at the beginning of the scenario went along with the mutiny or not, and letting it unfold from there, each sequence unfolding as the real-life officer made decisions and the program calibrated and moved ahead according to its programming. And all the time the narrative parameters file would be sitting and waiting there in the program, sitting in the backgrounds like a malignant virus, just waiting to come loose.

It had taken Seska a while to come up with the essential criteria for her revisions to Tuvok's program. The first and the most critical thing about the revised program was the entire thing was basically a booby-trap, with smaller traps layered in on top of one another. She had layered the program with traps everywhere. It hadn't been difficult to input an algorithm which would form smaller algorithms to program the holodeck grid to explode should anyone from the outside try to break in, and on top of that the computer would shut down the transporter systems instantly and lock them down.

The second was there would be an interactive version of herself in the revised program to deliver a message. The other version of her was just essentially herself disguised as a Bajoran. Seska had not spent the past 10-years of her life disguised as a deep-cover operative in the Obsidian Order posing as a Bajoran only to reveal the truth of her past to some computer even though if she programmed it right, it would never reveal the truth to the rest of the Starfleet crew but if this program was activated after everyone found out the truth about herself, Seska would not be bothered. The hologram version of her was designed to know she was Cardassian.

The holographic versions of her Maquis shipmates would not know, but truthfully it wouldn't matter either way since she had programmed them not to react. In that program, her holographic self would be in complete control of the whole experience. The revised program would still interact with anyone if they mentioned she was a Cardassian, the other holograms would not care. She had programmed them like that, and she had made sure the programming was rock-solid

The third part of the program was the fact it was a death trap. Seska was actually quite pleased with what she had done with it. The holographic representation of herself would now instantly who it was running the program, and she had written in the responses she wanted her holographic self to run accordingly. For the rest of the crew, the response would be straight forward - she would taunt them, and then she would kill them.

But the senior officers were not so lucky, Seska had designed the program accordingly for each member of the command crew. For example, Janeway, Seska had made the program a living hell; if the captain entered the scenario and ran the narrative parameters file, she would find herself in her own quarters, the place on the ship where she had her private space, and she would find the holographic Seska lying in her own bed, taunting her and then the captain would find the holographic her tied and bound before the holographic Seska sadistically sliced into her throat. Seska grinned as she thought about how the holographic her would then slowly turn to the real Janeway, and tell her to run, that the safety protocols were off, and she would have to run and hide.

Most of the programming she had written for the rest of the senior crew was more or less the same, and they would receive no help from the holographic mutineers or the Starfleet personnel. For instance, the EMH would appear if anyone walked through sickbay's doors, and would proceed to torture whoever it was before throwing them out - Seeks did not want a version of the EMH to kill anyone. No, she wanted her holographic self to do the deed.

The good thing was her work had been paid off. Now she had a booby-trapped holographic program written into the hacked scenario, so if she was forced off the ship either because her other plan was unravelled, or the Starfleet crew found out about her Cardassian heritage, she would be able to take her revenge on the Voyager crew. Seska had to admit to herself the booby-trapped program would only work if someone manually played it, but she had plenty of time to prepare for the worst if the long-term plan she was working on collapsed and she was forced off of the ship.

She had it all worked out, she had decided to give the Kazon-Nistrim sect a replicator instead of a transporter.

She had decided to start off small.

The Kazon sects already knew about Voyager's transporters and their replicators thanks to that encounter with Jabin during that mess with the array, and thanks to Neelix's stupidity the Kazon wanted that powerful technology. She was going to give it to them, and besides the replicators were an easy technology to pass onto the Nistrim rather than a transporter. She could simply transport the components and the replicator itself in a box that she could carry effortlessly and just pass it on to the Kazon in a face to face meeting. She had thought of simply giving them a transporter module, but she had decided to take it one step at a time once she had come up with a plan to make this work out for both Voyager and the Kazon-Nistrim. Besides, the Voyager crew would know instantly if one of their modules was missing. She could make one, but that would take her time, and besides she could make that for them at a later stage once they were used to the replicator technology, and had developed the means to build new ones for themselves.

There was still the chance Tuvok or someone else would discover what she was doing, and she would be forced off the ship.

In any case, there was the chance the Nistrim would not trust her. Her training had taught her to always start off small in the first place; she would begin by passing on basic information about transporter physics and the underlying technology to make them trust her, and then she would give them a replicator.

Once they had studied the technology and engineering of the device, Seska would help them design and build their own transporter technology and in return, the Nistrim would protect the ship out of thanks for making them stronger. Janeway would never suspect the real reason behind the Kazon suddenly leaving them alone. She might think it was something stupid. In an ideal world, her plans would go off without a hitch and none of the Starfleet crew would realise what she was doing, but she knew she would need to prepare for the worse.

She had plenty of time, she decided. In the meantime, Seska headed for main engineering. Her shift was going to be starting soon, and she wanted to keep her head down as she continued to isolate herself from the crew, and besides she needed to work out the best way she could contact the Kazon and let them know she was on their side when in truth she didn't really care one way or another about the piffling politics.

Besides, in engineering, she could work on a few more revisions. It had taken her the best part of two weeks to make the adjustments to the program, and assuming her plan with the Kazon went ahead as she hoped, she could do so much with it to make it more dangerous for anyone foolish enough to open the narrative parameters file.

* * *

Seska kept her expression pleasant as the Kazon man glared back at her through the screen connection in her quarters. It had taken a few days longer than she would have liked, but she had managed to rig up a way of contacting the Nistrim which would hopefully be undetected by Tuvok so long as she did not contact them too often.

It had also taken her a while, and a lot of work to make sure she could get through to their First Maje; Seska had the impression that Kazon males had a disdain for females, but she had managed to persuade them to let her have a face to face discussion with their Maje, a Kazon named Culluh.

"Why are you contacting us now, Federation?" the Kazon snapped over the subspace communication. "And behind your captain's back, no less?!"

It took all of Seska's control not to lose her temper right there and there, but it killed her to be called a Federation. After taking a few deep breaths to maintain her composure, Seska opened her mouth to reply in a scathing manner once she had decided to make it clear what she was in reality, and who she was, "That woman is not my captain."

Culluh stiffened in surprise by her response, though why that should be Seska had no idea since she was going behind Janeway's back. "What do you mean?" he asked curiously, stunned by her angered response.

"In our part of the galaxy, my people - the Cardassians - are fighting for colonies the Federation have. Planets that are ours by right! The Federation signed a peace treaty with my people to fool them into thinking we were complying with them, but a terrorist group rose up to fight us. Many of my people, including myself, were sent to gather information which will lead to the end of that group," Seska explained, "I was sent deep into cover, my genetic structure altered to appear Bajoran, my true appearance buried. I was swept into this quadrant against my will, examined by some filthy alien, and I was stranded here by that stupid human bitch. She is not my captain."

Culluh had been astonished by her hissed rant, but his astonishment had died down by the end of it. "What do you want?" he asked curiously in a more mild tone.

Satisfied the Kazon was now prepared to listen, Seska leaned forward and grinned at him. "Janeway is a fool. She thinks that by evoking Federation rules and nobility, we will get back to our part of the galaxy intact. She doesn't realise only the strong survive and have the right to survive in the universe. Nothing is free. We both know that, don't we?"

Culluh was smiling cruelly in triumph his precious sect had someone on board the fabled Voyager who thought much as they did. "Indeed we do," he murmured thoughtfully, and Seska could pretty much see for herself how the wheels were turning in his mind. It was truly amazing, but for a universe where there were just so many lifeforms inhabiting it, there were in truth few differences between them when it came to looking for opinions or for the truth. Seska waited for the Kazon on the other end to snap out of his thoughts - she could more or less guess what he was thinking anyway; he wanted to use the Voyager technology for the advancement of his own sect and didn't care what else happened.

Finally, Culluh took notice of her once more. "What do you suggest?" he asked in a gracious manner.

Seska smirked back at him, seeing through that manner instantly. "I can help your sect become strong," she replied simply.

"How?"

"By giving you what you want," she said smoothly, "I can help you improve your current technology; your weapons, your sensors and your computers."

Culluh frowned. "What do you get out of it?" he asked.

Seska noticed the frown on his face and realised there was far more to it and to the question that he meant to show off. Culluh had little idea about her past, and what she was capable of, and she had little intention of letting him know about it in case the Kazon took a dim view about espionage. Neelix had not really told the crew much about the Kazon besides the basics of their politics - how they were divided into different sects and fought against one another in order to steal resources and ground, but the Talaxian had not told them much about their culture, so she knew she would need to be careful for the time being.

Hoping that his manner meant something else, though if it was what she thought it was, then she might need to work out a way to kill him off at some point, Seska lowered her voice. "Me? Nothing at all. While I would like the Starfleeters to live a few days, in reality, I know it will never happen. But if I provide you with some of Voyager's technology, what would you give us in return?"

Cullah was quiet for a moment before he replied breezily though with the hint of arrogance Seska had quickly learnt was part of the Kazon's personality. "Protection," he said simply, "Our space is extremely dangerous. There are numerous sects out there, and the number of sects that appear and disappear changes constantly."

Seska smiled back. "I think we have an arrangement. I shall pass information on to you now, but it can't be in data packages that are too large. The security officer on this ship is thorough."

As she transmitted the information directly to the Kazon-Nistrim ship, Seska took a moment to savour this moment, and in the days between that night and when the Voyager crew discovered the truth about her, she wasn't worried. As a member of the Obsidian Order, Seska knew a few tricks that would be her stepping stone...

* * *

The End until the Next Story.


End file.
